Breeding

[jaguilar15]

Does anyone breed Crickets or night crawlers? I kind of want to know how to save some money buying crickets from petco can be a pain

[Kevin1]

Have you considered roaches? They breed very well.

[jaguilar15]

I had a colony, but my parents weren't approve, so i'm trying to figure out better ways to keep them so none get away. Do you have any advice?

[Greenlove]

There is a very good article about how to breed (culture) crickets on the left side of this page under forums.

[Animalnstinct]

I breed my own crickets and it is pretty easy to do. Honestly the only problem I've ever had with breeding my own crickets is when I tried to incubate my first batch of eggs I had a little to much moisture and not enough ventilation so I ended up with a very light layer of fungus covering the ground which killed that whole batch. Other then that one time it's been pretty simple.

If you start out with around 250 crickets, within a couple of weeks you will have a few thousand so you just have to be prepared on the amount of space because those little guys reproduce like crazy and if they get over crowded they will each others legs and what not.

Like greenlove mentioned there is a really good article on breeding crickets, http://www.frogforum.net/care-articl...e-cricket.html

The only things I really do differently then what that article says to do is I think 90 degrees is a bit to hot, where in my experience I noticed I have way more successful hatching's when the temperature is around 80 - 85. From my experience, when the temp is 90 not as many hatch.

Also, I know a lot of people mist down the pinheads or give them water cubes / crystals which I did at first but I found I had more success with damping a paper towel and putting it in there with them because some would drown when I misted the sides down because of how tiny they were and then with the water crystals I would lose a lot because the cubes would be sticky and they would get stuck and die. Where with the paper towel their were no droplets at all and the towel doesn't get sticky.

Hope that helps and good luck!

[jaguilar15]

I breed my own crickets and it is pretty easy to do. Honestly the only problem I've ever had with breeding my own crickets is when I tried to incubate my first batch of eggs I had a little to much moisture and not enough ventilation so I ended up with a very light layer of fungus covering the ground which killed that whole batch. Other then that one time it's been pretty simple.

If you start out with around 250 crickets, within a couple of weeks you will have a few thousand so you just have to be prepared on the amount of space because those little guys reproduce like crazy and if they get over crowded they will each others legs and what not.

Like greenlove mentioned there is a really good article on breeding crickets, http://www.frogforum.net/care-articl...e-cricket.html

The only things I really do differently then what that article says to do is I think 90 degrees is a bit to hot, where in my experience I noticed I have way more successful hatching's when the temperature is around 80 - 85. From my experience, when the temp is 90 not as many hatch.

Also, I know a lot of people mist down the pinheads or give them water cubes / crystals which I did at first but I found I had more success with damping a paper towel and putting it in there with them because some would drown when I misted the sides down because of how tiny they were and then with the water crystals I would lose a lot because the cubes would be sticky and they would get stuck and die. Where with the paper towel their were no droplets at all and the towel doesn't get sticky.

Hope that helps and good luck!

Thanks! yeah crickets are getting expensive. I've actually had a couple of babies by accident, so i sprayed down there cage with water and they did drown, so im going with the paper towel advice. Did you separate the pinheads with the adult crickets? can you tell which one is male and female? and thanks for the article!

[Animalnstinct]

Yeah crickets are a bit pricey, especially when you have multiple pets to feed. I don't mix the generations of crickets together. Usually once the babies hatch I leave them in the incubator tub until they are about 2-3 weeks old then they go into another tub, so each group of hatchings / generation never get put together. The only time I do put generations together is when they are full grown, but usually that's just if one tub is getting low from usage.

In regards to the difference in male and female, the females have a long tube like appendage on the back that almost looks like a long straight tail. Below is an image I found online of what the females look like. Hope that helps

[jaguilar15]

OKay thanks! for the information, i need to get some tubs and cut poke holes through them soon then! I'm feeding nine frogs it's hard to keep up with! Do they usually lay there batch of eggs in the egg covers?